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Carriers

Probably the worst news this week for mobile users in Canada comes from Public Mobile. iPhone in Canada is confirming what subscribers here already know—the once-upstart carrier (now owned by Telus) is raising the rate of its most popular deal. Here is the text of the offer that PM subscribers are receiving by SMS:

Starting March 20th, 2018 your rate plan price will increase by $10 per 30 days, making your plan $150 for 90 days. But don't worry! Our sister brand, Koodo, has a way for you to keep your $40 price point. Until March 15th, 2018, join Koodo and get 4GB of data, unlimited text and now additionally get UNLIMITED CANADA-WIDE minutes for $40/month PLUS get a one-time $100 bill credit! Offer valid for xxx-xxx-xxxx. Redeem at your nearest Koodo location or London Drugs or online at https://koo.do/gocustomer-service. Show this msg and use promo code GOKOODO404GB to redeem along with 2 pieces of ID. Your phone number is your validation code.

Hang on, though... aren't plans like this generally grandfathered? Didn't PM once say that rates on this plan were locked in? You bet they did. Here's the proof, and here's the relevant text:

If you have signed up for the promotional plan, you will be able to keep it after the promo period, as long as you are an active customer. This means that, as long as you are an active customer on this plan, your plan price will remain at $120, even after your initial 90 days. No surprises.

Surprise!

Customers calling out the carrier on social media are being directed to the terms of service document, which grants Public Mobile the right to change anything at any time. So much for empty promises, but why the sudden and arbitrary push to move customers from one Telus-owned carrier to another? Data overages is the likely answer; Public Mobile doesn't have them by design, but Koodo certainly does.

Yesterday OpenSignal released a new State of Mobile Networks Report: Canada, for the testing period from October 1st to December 30th, 2017. Telus is the big winner overall, with the best scores in three of OpenSignal's six categories, and tying the other Big Three carriers in the remaining three.

Telus users are welcome to gloat in this thread. What I'd like to draw your attention to are some regional results, where you'll find the only mention of this country's upstart operators:

Canada's operators large and small also made impressive showings in our Montreal and Toronto speed tests. Bell's 4G speed score in both cities topped 45 Mbps. Meanwhile in Montreal, Rogers and regional operator Vidéotron both averaged LTE downloads of about 30 Mbps in our measurements. In Toronto we found Freedom Mobile's new 4G service averaged speeds of 35.5 Mbps, while Rogers's average download was 27.2 Mbps.

In my own informal testing using my dual-SIM phone I've come to the same conclusion. There are, of course, some caveats with Freedom's service (like the outage earlier this week), but I don't think FM could have bested Rogers in anything a year or two ago; I say we take whatever small victories we can get!

The CBC reported yesterday that Bell has officially expanded its phone unlocking policy to include devices not currently associated with an active account—in other words, second-hand phones intended for use on another network.

A CRTC mandate had ordered all carriers in Canada to drop unlocking fees as of December 1st, 2017; Bell apparently decided that this ruling didn't apply to non-customer hardware, which non-customers only found out when they tried to get their used phones unlocked:

In December, Dean Belanger contacted the telecom to get a second-hand Bell-locked phone unlocked for free. But when he called Bell, he says he was turned down because he had never had an account with the telecom.

Belanger says he ended up getting the device unlocked by calling Virgin Mobile — which is owned by Bell — and pretending that a past Virgin account he had was tied to his Bell-locked phone.

"I was quite surprised that they wouldn't do it unless I had an account," said Sophia Irons, who tried in December to get Bell to unlock a Bell-locked phone she had bought on Kijiji.

She ended up requesting help from friends on Facebook, and managed to find a Bell customer willing to call the telecom and get her phone unlocked.

A representative from Bell told the CBC that the carrier has implemented a system of further checks to ensure that any non-customer device was not stolen or linked to a delinquent account. This was their previous justification for refusing to unlock their phones for other networks.

If you're financing your ultra-premium Samsung flagship through your carrier, as most folks in North America do, it's entirely understandable that you'd want to de-bloat your phone—see this post from 2013 for some examples of Canadian carrier bloat on a Galaxy S4. One of the easier ways to do this has been to flash a different firmware onto your device; though Samsung phones are region-locked it's been possible to flash an in-region but non-carrier version of your device's firmware using tools and guides from XDA.

Until now, that is: XDA reported yesterday that the January security update for the S8, S8+ and Note8 also includes a new bootloader, one that prevents the flashing of unlocked firmware on carrier-branded phones. If you try to change the firmware on your carrier-branded device you will hard-brick that device. Unlocked hardware purchased from Samsung or third parties seems unaffected.

Though not explicitly stated by anyone on XDA or the cross-post to r/Android, it sounds to me like this "update" would also prevent users from flashing custom ROMs onto late model carrier-branded Samsungs.

AT&T took the crown for best average 4G latency at 58.3 ms—which actually sounds pretty terrible until you take into consideration the huge reporting area. Some more details on OpenSignal's testing:

Reporting period: October 1st to December 30th, 2017
Devices included in test: 237,213
Total measurements: 5,928,296,946

To find the best-performing carrier for your area you can see a list of 33 regional results at the first link directly below. And remember, any suspicions of these findings can be addressed by downloading the app for Android or iOS and joining the pool of test devices for the next report!

Researchers at Northeastern University have developed an app that can tell you which services are being throttled by your wireless carrier, and by how much. It's called Wehe, and it's only available for Android. Find out why below.

How it works is fairly ingenious. Using YouTube as an example, Wehe spoofs that app for a random download, then repeats the download but with different metadata, fooling your carrier into thinking it's from another source. By comparing speeds you can determine if and by how much your YouTube videos are being throttled. In the case of BingeOn it's been shown that T-Mobile indiscriminately throttles all video to 1.5 Mbps, and with YouTube specifically limits video resolution to 360p.

Wehe is currently able to test the following services via their apps:

Amazon
NBC Sports
Netflix
Skype
Spotify
Vimeo
YouTube

And what about iOS? Well, according to Motherboard Apple won't approve it. An App Store reviewer told the developers that Wehe "has no direct benefits to the user". Because carriers, I guess...

Hopefully Wehe will find its way to APKMirror and/or F-Droid should Google ever come to a similar determination; in the meantime you can grab it on Google Play at the first link directly below.

As you can probably guess, there's a more accurate means to determine your strength of your phone's cellular radio than that icon in your status bar. On Android you can find numerical values, measured in dBM and asu as in the grabbed screen above, by navigating through your phone as follows:

Settings > About phone > Status > SIM status

While you could make the argument that Google is already doing a pretty good job of hiding this information from the user, a curious new commit to Android P discovered by XDA would suggest that it could be removed altogether. The reason for doing so can be found in a comment on the commit:

Code:

Hide signal strength when told by carrier

Ok Google, you suck.

The good news is that the relevant APIs are unaffected—meaning that third-party Android apps like LTE Discovery and Signal Strength can still retrieve this data for the user.

At best, carriers might simply wish for their Android offerings to be less geeky and intimidating for new users; at worse they don't want any attention drawn to their sub-par networks. For me, it's yet another reason to steer well clear of carrier-branded hardware.

I'll never forget this one telephone exchange I had with Rogers. It was the mid-2000s and I was calling to cancel my cable package; after several minutes on hold with retentions, a rep came on the line to make me a final offer:

"Listen, you've been a loyal customer for over a decade, and you've never made a late payment. What would you say if I told you I could knock a full third off of your cable bill?"

BCE spokesman Mark Langton pointed to the busy shopping season and said, "We respond to promotional action in the market and have our own holiday offers at Bell Mobility and Virgin, now and during Boxing Week. We have other offers on now and there will be more through the rest of the season."

Rogers also cited the holidays, and spokeswoman Sarah Schmidt added: "We'll continue to offer time-limited promotions to meet the different needs of our customers."

Telus did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

I was sure that I'd read somewhere about someone from Telus saying that they were responding to a regional offer by a competitor, which is actually closer to the truth than anything above. Unfortunately I can't find a citation for that. But the important thing is that Canada has a new benchmark for smartphone plans and what they should cost. To borrow a slogan from WIND Mobile, that's a holiday miracle!

Here's hoping that every Canadian reading this was able to jump onto a 10GB/month plan yesterday; if not, I've been hearing that some carriers are extending their promos until end of day today. I actually joined in on the fun myself, and am now the proud owner of two Rogers SIMs—one each for the girlfriend and I.

Why, as a Freedom Mobile customer, would I even want to admit this? Because the Rogers SIMs are going to be used only as backups in the second SIM slots of our two OnePlus phones; our primary voice, text and data service will be with Freedom Mobile. I'll be sealing the deal by porting out our numbers from Koodo later today.

Some Howard Forums members seem to have a hard time believing this, but Freedom's service in downtown Toronto has, in more than a month's worth of use, been surprisingly good. I can think of only two places where I've not had a reliable signal—in the basement of The Bay's Queen Street store and a lawyer's office where there weren't any nearby windows.

For scenarios like these getting back online will be as simple as switching our data connection to Rogers. Those lines were activated on the same $5/month tablet flex plan; they're ready if we need them, but the cost of keeping them on standby is low. In fact, for the next twenty months they're basically free, since Freedom is giving each of our lines a $10 credit per month.

Back in the summer of 2014 when FM was still WIND Mobile I wrote that I wouldn't fault anyone for voting with their wallet—that is, paying for service with an upstart carrier to divert money that would otherwise go to The Big Three. Today, with a dual-SIM phone you can finally have the best of both worlds. And if that dual-SIM device is a OnePlus 5 or 5T you get a pretty fantastic Android smartphone as well!

Oh, it's a gold rush, all right... in this country, a 10GB data bucket has never been so cheap!

In the absence of any other data, here's a poll that iPhone in Canada ran over the weekend, asking its community which carrier, if any, was chosen for a new 10GB $60/month plan. Here are the results, as of 7:30am Eastern Time this morning:

Not an exhaustive data set, to be sure, but it's something at least. And the most heartening thing for me here is that Freedom Mobile didn't score last. Remember, the only reason why Alberta, BC and Ontario are suddenly seeing big data buckets at reasonable rates is because Freedom is finally selling the iPhone on a halfway decent 4G network...

And where is TELUS in all of this? Apparently its flanker brand Koodo will be announcing something similar today. That's especially good news for Big Three subscribers in Ontario, as Koodo's out-of-province plans have historically been fairly easy to get.

The reason for this sudden surge in affordable data plans has got to be the one-two punch of Freedom Mobile's cheap 4G offerings and the fact that they're now an official vendor/subsidizer of Apple's iPhone. Even if you think their network sucks—and my experience with a Band 66-compatible phone in downtown Toronto would suggest that it doesn't—you potentially stand to gain from their affordable data, improved network and available handsets.

If only The Big Three were competitive across the entire country, then we'd really have something to celebrate...

Apologies for the Toronto-centric news (how Canadian of me!) but a bunch of new subway stations are opening in the GTA this weekend, and for people who live here it's a pretty big deal.

As Mobile Syrup reports, every one of these new stations will have free T-Connect WiFi available, but for Freedom Mobile subscribers there's even better news: the carrier's band 66 LTE will be available not only on the extension's subterranean platforms, but throughout the 9 kilometers of tunnel as well.

BAI Canada, who won the contract to provide WiFi and cellular service to the TTC's underground in 2013, has now wired all 75 subway stations for service. They expect to have all tunnels in the downtown core connected by next summer.

Yes, this means that you may have to endure one side of your fellow commuters' inane phone conversations, but if you're the more considerate type you'll also be able to message your friends and loved ones in silence.

I don't use the TTC every day but when I do Freedom's underground connectivity has been fantastic, with a strong signal already following me halfway through the tunnel to the next station. And soon it will be even better!

In this unfortunate era of fake news I've made it a daily habit to visit Snopes. In a more innocent time one might go there to fact-check an urban myth; these days the site's scope has expanded to include other types of misinformation, like misleading tweets from members of Congress.

So, first of all, as a member of the European Union, Portugal enjoys net neutrality protections set by the EU regulator BEREC. What we're actually looking at in this MEO screen shot is a selection of zero-rated data bundles—apps and services that, for an additional fee, won't be subject to the user's monthly data cap. The idea, if not the execution, is similar to T-Mobile's Binge On.

In the EU, as in Canada, zero-rated data offerings come under scrutiny if they are suspected of disadvantaging similar services. For example, Bell Canada's mobile TV offering was disallowed by our CRTC because it was not subject to data caps, and was therefore anti-competitive against other video services, like Netflix and YouTube, that were.

It's difficult to pitch zero-rated data as a net neutrality issue because everybody wants free stuff—or, in the case of MEO subscribers, unlimited access to the services they use most. But don't be fooled by tweets; Portugal does have a zero-rated data problem, but also strong net neutrality protections.

If you were planning a visit to your local Verizon outlet today, there's something you should know: "Team Internet", a coalition of the activist groups Demand Progress, Fight for the Future and Free Press, is planning a national day of action at Verizon stores around the country. Participants will be protesting the FCC's planned repeal of net neutrality protections in the United States.

On November 21st FCC Chief Ajit Pai formally revealed plans to reverse the commission's 2015 net neutrality order, more specifically the Title II protections for broadband and mobile Internet traffic. The worry is that without Title II there will be nothing to stop Internet service providers from prioritizing, for example, their own video streaming services over Netflix or YouTube. Pai, on the other hand, claims that Title II has stifled innovation and investment in network infrastructure.

The FCC will vote on Pai's plan on December 14th; the repeal is expected to go through with commissioners voting 3 for and 2 against, along party lines. What today's protests are expected to accomplish beyond raising awareness is unclear. Depending on where you stand on this issue it could be either a minor annoyance or something you'll very much want to be a part of.

Too late for the midnight stampedes, but I'm hoping this will at least serve as a starting point for your mobile-centric Black Friday shopping. It's not exhaustive by any means; you'll notice that Android Police and Mobile Syrup are responsible for a few links each. Kudos to them for doing the grunt work so that I didn't have to.

Earlier this week Ars Technica posted a deep dive into exactly how the CRTC deals with zero-rated data offerings. Ben Klass already knows that the regulator has a complaints-based rather than blanket policy in such matters; there are, in fact, four criteria considered with every complaint:

The degree to which the treatment of data is agnostic (i.e., data is treated equally regardless of its source or nature);

Whether the offering is exclusive to certain customers or certain content providers;

The impact on Internet openness and innovation;

Whether there is financial compensation involved.

For more insights into net neutrality in Canada vs. the USA, plus zero-rated data as treated by the CRTC vs. FCC, see the link immediately below.

Mobile Syrup has a pretty big scoop this morning: they've been able to confirm that Freedom Mobile will start carrying the iPhone in-store as of December 8th. And not cast-off refurbished hardware, either—the carrier will offer new stock and the full complement of 2017's iPhone 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X.

In Western Canada there will be even more Apple product to choose from; because FM is already running their 2500MHz spectrum in that part of the country the iPhone 6, 6s, 6s Plus, SE, 7 and 7 Plus will be available on the same date. Those same devices will be available in Eastern Canada once that spectrum gets lit up in early 2018.

Canadians who finance their smartphone purchases (ie. most of us) stand to reap some considerable savings over 24 months, as all iPhones will be $0 down. Check the link below for details on that.

It will be interesting to see what Apple's iconic smartphone can do for Freedom's subscriber numbers and, if there ends up being a big influx of new users, whether or not FM's young LTE network can handle it.

After flashing the update I went for an mid-afternoon stroll through several neighbourhoods in downtown Toronto: Baldwin Village, the U of T campus, The Annex, Kensington Market and Chinatown. Everywhere I checked I had a solid 4G signal, and every time I ran a speed test I got the same results that were so elusive to my device just a week before.

Building penetration is still an issue, of course. In certain places, like the bathrooms at the back of restaurants, the best available data signal is still HSPA+ or worse. But the software update is enough of an improvement that I can now recommend the OnePlus 5 to anyone on the Freedom network—more than any other phone, in fact, since you can test a Freedom SIM in either of the phone's dual SIM slots while keeping your current SIM in the other one!

Thanks to the CRTC, come this December 1st your Canadian carrier will no longer be able to sell phones locked to its own network. It's great news for consumers in this country; even better, some carriers are getting ahead of the deadline and have begun unlocking their hardware for free!

I've cobbled together a quick list of who is currently selling unlocked smartphones (and also LTE-connected tablets). It's by no means complete, so please feel free to add to it. And it doesn't include your local Apple Store or pop-up Samsung shop—because we already knew about those, right?

Bell and Virgin Mobile

Both Bell and its subsidiary Virgin Mobile have begun selling a considerable portion of their device portfolios without any carrier locks:

Here is Freedom Mobile's LTE network at its very best in downtown Toronto, observed by yours truly in the second SIM slot of his Band 66-compatible OnePlus 5. I've definitely recorded better download speeds on Bell/Koodo/TELUS in the same neighbourhood, but Freedom's speeds—and the low latency in particular—is perfectly acceptable for almost anything you'd ask a modern smartphone to do.

But here's the thing: in my three days of informal testing across the GTA that LTE signal was pretty hard to come by. More often than not I was stuck on HSPA+, sometimes even on (gasp) 3G!

Not only that, but I can recall two incidents in particular where Freedom let me down entirely: the first was in the parking lot at IKEA North York, where the latency was so bad that launching Google Maps yielded no traffic data; the second was in the basement of Hudson's Bay Company at Queen and Yonge, where I was surprised to suddenly find myself with no signal at all.

The rest of the time data on Freedom was slow but serviceable. I did keep an eye on my phone's status bar, and when a rare 4G signal magically appeared I immediately did a speed test, with results similar to what you see above. This may, of course, be an issue unique to my unsupported hardware. But a chat with a rep at my local Freedom outlet gave me the impression that the phones sold by the carrier exhibit similar behaviour.

I will never fault anyone for choosing Freedom Mobile to vote with their wallet; Canada's Big Three carriers have been ripping us off for far too long. But while I'd definitely recommend an LTE upgrade to an existing user, I also think that any Big Three customer looking to jump ship is in for a disappointing ride.

I was talking to my coworker who had the same issue I got an T-Mobile series 3 off some one off letgo it was paid for but vz would not actvaite it so he sold it and just got one full price from Best...

While right now it is the only way to get WiFi Calling, this will not apply to iPhones once a Carrier Update that contains the settings for VoWiFi is rolled out. They have to work regardless, whether...